“Zach,” she protested, but not too strenuously. She closed her eyes and cradled her arms over his, leaning back against his solid strength. “You’re already late.”

“I know,” he murmured. “If I didn’t have an important meeting this morning, I’d skip work altogether.”

Turning in his arms, Janine tilted back her head to gaze into his eyes. “You’ll be home for dinner?”

“Keep looking at me like that and I’ll be home for lunch.”

Janine smiled. “It’s almost that time now.”

“I know,” he growled, reluctantly pulling away from her. “We’ll go out to dinner tonight,” he said, kissing her again. His mouth was hot on her own, feverish with demand and passion and need. He raised his head, but his eyes remained shut. “Then we’ll come home and celebrate.”

Janine sighed. Married life was beginning to agree with her.

At precisely five, Zach was back. He stood by the door, loosening his tie, when Janine appeared. A smile traveled to his mouth as their eyes met. Neither moved. They stared at each other as if they’d spent years apart instead of a few short hours.

Janine was feeling distinctly light-headed. “Hi,” she managed to say, shocked that her voice sounded more like a hoarse whisper than the cheery greeting she’d intended. “How’d the meeting go?”

“Bad.”

“Bad?”

He nodded slowly and stepped forward, placing his briefcase on the desk. “I was supposed to be listening to an important financial report, but unfortunately all I could do was wonder how much longer the thing would take so I could get home to my wife.”

“Oh.” That wasn’t the most intelligent bit of conversation she’d ever delivered, but just looking at Zach was enough to wipe out all her normal thought processes.

“It got to be almost embarrassing.” His look was intimate and loving as he advanced two more steps toward her. “In the middle of it, I started smiling, and then I embarrassed myself further by laughing outright.”

“Laughing? Something was funny?”

“I was thinking about your definition of romance. The tryst on the moors was supplied by your grandfather. The walk along the beach, hand in hand, was supplied by me after the wedding. But the desperate passion, my dear sweet wife, was something we found together.”

Her eyes filled with tears.

“I love you.”

They moved toward each other then, but stopped abruptly when the doorbell chimed. Zach’s questioning eyes met hers. Janine shrugged, not knowing who it could possibly be.

The second Zach answered the door, Anton flew into the room, looking more determined than Janine had ever seen him.

“All right, you two, sit down,” he ordered, waving them in the direction of the sofa.

“Gramps?”

“Anton?”

Janine glanced at Zach, but he looked as mystified as she did. So she just shrugged and complied with her grandfather’s demand. Zach sat down next to her.

Gramps paced the carpet directly in front of them. “Janine and I had lunch the other day,” he said, speaking to Zach. “Two things became clear to me then. First and foremost, she’s crazy in love with you, but I doubt she’s told you that.”